The start of something larger than life

brody 521.
(photo credit:OURIA TADMOR)

I came to Israel to play
basketball, but I stayed in Israel because I loved the country and became very
Zionistic.

And it all started with the Maccabiah.

The Maccabiah
definitely changed my life. It changed my goals in life. I dreamed of playing
basketball in the NBA as a kid and I realized one dream by coming out of college
and being the 12th selection by the Baltimore Bullets in the 1965 NBA draft. I
went to the rookie camp and was given a nice apartment in Baltimore, but all of
a sudden came the Maccabiah Games. I asked Bullets owner Abe Pollin if I could
go to Israel and play for Maccabi USA. At that time there were only nine teams
in the NBA and I thought Baltimore was overloaded with guards and I wanted them
to trade me to Philadelphia. I was in a situation which was ideal for me to come
to the Maccabiah.

What we used to learn in Sunday school unfolded before
my eyes when we traveled around Israel. I felt part of that history and felt
proud of that history. The Israeli culture was also completely different to what
I thought it would be like. At that time, there was no television in Israel and
we saw very little of Israel in the US. The country wasn’t like we studied in
Hebrew school. It had a very vivid cultural and social life. It was a fun
country and all these things struck me when Maccabi Tel Aviv offered me a
contract.

Maccabi presented me with a challenge. They said the country is
in a recession, the people aren’t smiling, and there are Arab boycotts all
around us and our basketball team has never got past the first round of European
competition. They said that I could take the team to a different level. That
challenge was appealing to me. The fact that the Bullets didn’t want to make a
trade and wanted me to come back for the preseason camp, combined with the
challenge from Maccabi, which I found inspiring as a Jew and as an athlete,
resulted in me talking to the Bullets and telling them that I want to take a
year out of my life to get my Masters degree and then I want to go to Israel and
play a year with Maccabi Tel Aviv.

What happened to me that first year
was amazing. It was unbelievable to see the reaction as our team went past the
first and second rounds and playing behind the Iron Curtain and seeing what that
did to the local Jewish community. To see how proud they were that an Israeli
team could come in and win against their national team. I saw that basketball
could have a greater meaning than just playing in the NBA. I saw with my eyes
what happened to a country that was in a recession as our team went all the way
to the final of the European Cup Winners Cup in 1967. I saw what it meant to the
country and how the Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and Moshe Dayan wanted to come to
our games.

Winning the European championship title in 1977 was the
fulfillment of a dream, Taking a team that never got past the first round and
claiming the continental title with it was a milestone
accomplishment.

There were only 25 countries and 1,250 athletes
participating when I came for the 1965 Maccabiah Games and this summer there
will be nearly 80 countries and 9,000 Jewish athletes.

I’ve been
associated with every Maccabiah in the past 48 years and I believe the Games
have an important role in building love for Israel. I believe that even if the
participants don’t make Aliya to Israel, they go back home as ambassadors of
Israel. They see Israel for what it really is and not as it is portrayed in
demonstrations by anti-Israeli protesters. They get a realistic view of Israel
and they develop that love for the country and feel part of it.

To you
the athletes I say: take the whole experience. Of course you want to record your
achievements and do the best that you can and maybe even win a medal. But make
sure that you visit the country, see the people, see the social and cultural
life and feel that you are part of this nation that is called
Israel.

Look what you can benefit from the experience and take it home
with you. Whether you are going to make Aliya or not, at least you should feel
that you are able to stand up for Israel wherever you are in the
world.

Tal Brody became the first sportsman to be awarded the Israel
Prize in 1979 after helping Maccabi Tel Aviv to its first European Championship
title in 1977. His influence on Israeli basketball is incalculable and he coined
what is without a doubt Israeli sports’ most celebrated quotation following
Maccabi’s victory over CSKA Moscow en route to the final: “We’re on the map and
we’re staying on the map, not just in sport, but in everything.”

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